


nobody told me there'd be days like these

by torigates



Category: How I Met Your Mother
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-04
Updated: 2013-11-04
Packaged: 2017-12-31 12:45:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1031842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torigates/pseuds/torigates
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lily and Marshall’s first child is born on a Thursday.</p>
            </blockquote>





	nobody told me there'd be days like these

  
Lily and Marshall’s first child is born on a Thursday.

Ted, Robin, and Barney sat in the waiting room for hours, hoping for good news. For any news. Marshall ran out every thirty minutes to give them updates. “Still no baby!” he shouted each time before vanishing again into the room where Lily was.

“What’s taking so long?” Barney asked each time, after Marshall is gone, his voice getting higher pitched and more panicked as the night wore on. “Is it normal for things to take this long?”

Robin and Ted both assured him that it was.

Ted was pretty sure he’d never seen Barney this worked up about a non-gambling issue before. He was also pretty sure it had something to do with how Barney had treated Lily during the pregnancy.

From the very first moment Lily announced she was pregnant, Barney had begun to pull away from her. It wasn’t all that surprising, when Ted actually stopped to think about it. Pregnant, Lily represented everything Barney fought hard to resist. She represented family, marriage, responsibility, adulthood. The anti-Barney.

Of course, to Ted, this was pretty much nonsense. Sure, Lily and Marshall were married and wanted to have a family, but there was nothing about them that screamed adulthood and responsibility to Ted. Even after Marshall bought the minivan. To Ted, the two of them would always be the same people eating sandwiches in the dorm room and having sex on the bottom bunk while he was “asleep” on the top.

And now they were having a kid. _A kid_.

So, okay. Maybe Ted did get why Barney was freaking out after all.

Ted got up and started pacing around the waiting room, he and Barney crossing paths as they walked back and forth.

“Would you two sit down?” Robin snapped after several minutes. She had been watching their movement, her head going back and forth as she followed first Barney, then Ted.

They sat on either side of her.

“Lily is having a baby,” Ted said after a moment.

“Tell me about it,” Barney agreed.

“Just where have you two been the last nine months?” Robin asked. “Lily only had like seven showers and the most emotional pregnancy in the history of womankind. It was kind of hard to miss.”

And they hadn’t, obviously. It wasn’t news that Lily was in the other room giving birth, yet somehow, both Ted and Barney had failed to pick up on that very important detail.

Being pregnant meant giving birth, giving birth meant that there would be a baby. And a baby changed everything.

“When did we grow up?” Ted asked.

“Speak for yourself,” Barney scoffed. “I’m no adult.”

“That much is true,” Robin muttered.

Barney looked at her, a ‘hey’ expression on his face, but since Robin was agreeing with him, there wasn’t much he could do.

“Why are you freaking out?” Robin asked turning to Ted. “Isn’t this what you want? Wife, kids, minivan, the whole shebang?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Ted agreed. “I mean, yeah.” He paused. No one spoke. “It’s just never been so,” he trailed off looking for the right word, “Real before now. Lily and Marshall are _parents_. They’re responsible for the entire existence of a human being.”

“Marshall can’t even visit Seattle for fear of _Bigfoot_ ,” Barney said. “Lily hates Kate Hudson.”

“They’re going to _parents_ ,” Ted said. He felt dizzy.

“Okay, you two girls need to calm down,” Robin said. Her expression was torn between bemusement and puzzlement. “Are you two even listening to yourselves? It’s _Lily and Marshall_. They’re going to make great parents and still be totally awesome.”

Ted and Barney continued to sit in silence. Robin put her arms around their shoulders and patted their backs reassuringly. Then she smacked them upside the head. “Stop being ridiculous,” she said.

“Ow,” Ted and Barney said in unison, rubbing the backs of their heads.

“That was mean,” Ted muttered.

“Suck it up, princess,” Robin said, looking at him, and then turning to give Barney an equally stern look. “Any time now, Marshall is going to come through that door and tell us we have a new member of the gang, I don’t want either of you two upsetting Lily with this ‘when did we become adults,’ garbage. Lily has been too emotionally fragile that last few months, and I can’t handle another crying fest about how _mean you boys are being_!” Her voice got louder at the end, like she had been keeping that rant in for some time now.

“Lily thinks we’re mean?” Barney asked in a small voice.

Robin hung her head in exasperation.

Eventually the half hour mark rolled around, and there was no sign of Marshall. And another half hour passed. Marshall didn’t run out into the waiting room with the usual, “Still no baby!” He walked out slowly, a shell shocked expression on his face.

“Lily had the baby,” he said.

Ted, Barney, and Robin all rose from their chairs simultaneously.

“What?” Robin asked.

“Do you guys want to meet our son?” he asked.

They did.

Holding his best friends’ child in his arms, Ted felt all his earlier insecurities and doubts rushing out of his body. He felt everything rushing out of him, except for love and affection and awe for the small, perfect human being in his hands. And Marshall and Lily had _made_ him.

Of course they were going to be amazing parents. And so would Ted someday.

“My turn! My turn!” Barney whined hovering over his shoulder. “I want to hold the baby!”

Ted smiled and handed him over, watching the awe-struck look on Barney’s face as he carefully held the new born. Lily looked exhausted and worn out, but as happy as Ted had ever seen her. Marshall was sitting next to her on the bed, his arm around her shoulder, smiling ear to ear. Robin stood next to Barney, as the tiny baby held on to one of her fingers.

It was (there was no other word for it) legendary. 


End file.
